Brown and White Vol. 83 no. 37

              brown and white vol 83 - no 37 bethlehem pa friday march 3 1972 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 866-0331 ed pol — law school appropriate by steve glickstein the faculty educational policy commit tee unanimously concluded wednesday that the establishment of a law school at lehigh would be beneficial to the univer sity the lehigh valley pennsylvania and the legal profession ed 1 pol did not go so far as to recommend the actual creation of a law school there was no determination of the priority of a law school vis-a-vis other capital pro jects one ed pol member pointed out however that the resolution was more than a mere consensus should the trust ees accept ed pol's recommendation and money become available for a law school lt would behoove the university to estab lish one ed pol's recommendation was based upon a 19 page subcommittee report com piled after months of investigation the report has been submitted to president w deming lewis who will release it to other campus groups specifically the forum and the faculty at his option the subcommittee chaired by journal ism prof joseph b mcfadden was charged with studying the feasibility of creating a law school the report consid ers a law school with the following characteristics 1 a student body of 400 full time 2 a law library of 100,000 volumes to be acquired over a seven year period 3 a faculty of 16 thus establishing a student teacher ration of 1:25 4 administration of a dean assist ant dean law librarian and director of clinical studies 5 combining the ed pol resolution resolved that on the basis of the law school data collected and studied by the educational policy committee we find that the establishment of a school of law at lehigh university is appropriate to the objectives of the university and would be a substanial benefit to the university the lehigh valley community and the common wealth of pennsylvania and the num erous men and women desirous of a legal education we therefore urge active consideration in the light of resources and other priorities of the university facilities for multi-purpose use with the school of education and the college of business and economics graduate pro gram the report considers the demand for legal education the need for new law schools in pennsylvania job opportuni ties for future lawyers the effect of a law school on the campus environment and other academic departments capital costs a time schedule for the establish ment of the school and fund raising potential time and financial limitations prevented the study of the beneficial effect that a law school has on under graduate enrollment and a poll of campus attitudes towards a law school the report found demand for legal education to be increasing at a tremendous rate the number of lsat candidates which is an accurate indicator of students considering legal education has doubled in the last two years actual enrollment in american law schools has risen from 41,499 in 1961 to 68,386 in 1969 to 94,468 ln 1971 this trend is expected to continue throughout the 1 970 5 several reasons are cited for the in creased interest inlaw the large numbers of college grads increased opportunity for women deferred admission to return ing vietnam veterans high income expect ancy an up-to now stable job market a belief that law is the most effective instrument for social change and the trend to use law as a general background for non-legal employment have all con tributed the unprecedented demand for legal education in this regard the report concludes pennsylvania to be no better off than the rest of the country in fact pennsyl vania is in greater need for lawyers than most states the national average of people per lawyer is 628 in pennsyl vania 848 moreover a state study pre dicts the need for 605 additional first year students from 1974-80 opinions were solicited from the deans of other pennsylvania law schools on the need for new schools in the state the deans reactions were mixed but generally negative one ed pol member pointed out however that this might reflect fear of competition from lehigh some schools unfavorable toward a new facility at lehigh plan to increase their own enrollment the desire for legal education is defin itely on the upswing but it is certain that the demand for lawyers will similarly increase the number of lawyers is expected to double by 1975 still the report finds 1971 and prospective 1972 law graduates facing difficulties in land ing suitable positions expanded job op portunities might open in the fields of state and local administration litigation consumer environment other public as these young soldiers rejoice over tales of adventures past so do the lehigh men ( and women of today continue in the tradition of putting a good time above ail forum finds u support the results of a general questionnaire on the performance of the forum have been compiled and at first glance seem to be a vote in favor of the activities of the governing body although the questionnaire is admittedly yes-biased on satisfaction with the forum's performance the question should the university forum be con tinued brought 329 affirmative responses versus 32 nays the questionnaire was distributed to members of the student body faculty and administration by the forum evaluations committee william jesse 73 who tabulated the results for the committee stated that although the vote of confidence registered through the questionnaire is overwhelming it may be influenced by the lack of an alternative to the forum respondents to the questionnaire indi cated that they are being adequately represented in matters of academic en vironment policy and that their views are being presented to the board of 44 positions to be filled in next forum elections undergraduate and graduate student elections to the university forum will be conducted this month undergraduate elections will be held on march 22-23 there are 44 positions to be filled for the student faculty administration legislature ten elected at large 11 from the arts college 17 from engineering and six from the business school in order to run a student must obtain a certain number of endorsements on petition the number varying with the constituency represented official election petitions can be obtained at the student activities desk or the forum office ln the u.c all petitions must be submitted to the student activities desk or the forum office by march 13 graduate elections will take place from march 15-28 all interested candidates must file a petition with the forum office by march 8 ballots available in each college and department during the election period should be returned to the forum office by march 28 language poll taken 26 ? students surveyed both lehigh students and faculty are dissatisfied with the present arts college language requirement and want some sort of change a recent poll shows the poll is based on the response of 261 students and 89 faculty who returned a questionnaire sent out by the academic affairs committee of the 261 students surveyed 130 felt no language requirement was needed 29 agreed with the present requirement of three years and 128 said that some requirement was necessary philip hunt chairman stated that most of the students who favored some requirement tended towards a two-year requirement with the emphasis on con versation this trend toward a two-year requirement was also found among the 89 faculty members polled of the 64 faculty stated a for some language preferred two years over option language study with a course on the history literature a foreign the support students few however the culture option be fully entire results were there was between the i over the an the classics the modern foreign language departments into one language depart support proposal to allow department own language received a two-to-one favorable response faculty results disagreeing students yes to the consolidation of the classics modern foreign language while the faculty results were department the validity he whether the between three years language study year pro can in two see poll page 5 see forum page 4 see trustees page 4 forum meetings the community relations com mittee of the forum will meet today at 4 in the uc 210 the student affairs committee of the forum will meet tuesday march 7 at 7:30 in the uc 409 the campus planning subcommit tee of the priorities planning and resources committee of the forum will meet monday march 6 at 4 in the uc 210